Xander this week...

This was a good week, but uneventful for the most part. Highlights include Xander discovering he can now reach to climb on the dining room chairs and then guess where? On the dining room table! He does this every chance I'm even the tiniest bit distracted. He's pretty quick about it too. I walk into the kitchen to fix breakfast, next thing I know he gets really quiet. Whenever he gets quiet I KNOW he's up to something. Then of course I find him sitting on top of the dining room table. I would take a picture of it, but I don't want him to think it's cute and get encouraged to do it more. I swear I can put him in time-out 10 times in a row and he still gets on that table, Chris thinks he testing me, he's probably right. Other highlights, Xander's discovery that he loves String Cheese, it's too cute. He's actually not a big fan of cheese in any way, everytime I try mac and cheese he refuses it and throws a fit. Which has kinda been shocking to me, because I thought kids liked cheese? Well he just likes what he likes, apparently I was just getting the wrong cheese. And I think he also likes that he can peel down the wrapper as he eats it. He's definitely got his mother's eating habits, not his father's! haha

Oh and say goodbye to those ugly couches haha! While they are comfy they aren't pretty, we invested in some great and much needed couch covers this week, they will be arriving soon. Yay for Tax Refunds!

Green Crayon!

I always said that one day Xander would wake up and just start talking, well beyond the basics like milk and nana. This week it happened! Xander started repeating EVERYTHING I say. I say ok, he says ok, I say toes, he says toes. It's too cute, everything from let's go to what's wrong? He repeats it's all. It's completely amazing to me. I try to test him with new words and he never ceases to amaze me, so far he can say almost anything, well aside from the really big words like elephant.

Another thing he learned this past week was his first color, Green! He loves green. Not sure why, maybe because turtles and dino's are green? He said it for the first time the other day while coloring. I was shocked when I realized he was actually coloring with, yes green! Then a couple days later he put it together, he was coloring and suddenly started running around holding his green crayon up in the air proudly yelling "Green Crayon! Green Crayon!" like he had made this unbelievable discovery. It was too cute! But what was really amazing to me was that I never said, "That's your green crayon" or "green crayon" at all to him that day! It's like he had been storing it up in his little memory just waiting to amaze me. I've tried to see if he knows any other colors, he has said blue and yellow, but not consistently. Also he is very partial to coloring in only green lately. I gave him a choice of maybe 5 crayons this morning to color with and when I came back his pooh bear coloring page was green very green, not much else, haha

Pictures from the week -

The first two are of Xander playing with his animal puzzle. It's definitely his very favorite toy this week. He enjoys putting it together over and over and over, while telling me what sound each animal makes. It's pretty adorable, although after the 15th time in a row, it does get less cute haha




This next picture was taken this weekend. After a long morning of playing, just before nap time. He likes to lay by the front door sometimes, I'm not sure why, but he can see his cartoons from there so he'll just lay and watch. I couldn't help but snap a pic


The next set are of office adventures this past week

Xander hiding...


Reading...


We don't go anywhere with out his "B" (or blankie as I call it)


Xander multi-tasking - drinking his milk while getting grandma's attention

How to keep a toddler busy for an hour!

Play-doh!

Haha! It really works! I made Play-doh for Xander last week. I was out of food coloring and used Kool-aid to color, which is actually not messy at all, and makes it smell like fruit. Thankfully Xander figured out very quickly that it didn't taste good at all and it lead to a very productive hour of pure toddler entertainment!

EASY PLAY DOH:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients together in pot, add the boiling water and cooking oil. Stir over medium heat until it forms a ball. Let it cool. Keep in air tight container in refrigerator when not playing with it.

I had to help him get started but after he got the hang of it he was mezmorized!

Spaghetti Night!

Last night...



starts out with the fork...


eating with the hands is faster...




I love the red spaghetti face! haha


Xander LOVES Spaghetti, of course a bath is required afterward

Explora, Peas, and the letter B...

The letter of the week is... B! Xander learned that he likes words that start with the letter B this week, B is for Bailey our dog's name or as Xander now calls him "Beelee", he'll yell his name over and over and pat his leg to call him haha it's so so cute, it's amazing how much they imitate us. The letter B is also for Big Bird or as Xander likes to call him "Big Bee", he really likes big bird, which is kinda funny to me considering he doesn't like to watch Seaseme Street but has several books with pictures of Big Bird and that's really how he learned his name.

Next I'll address the "Peas", now when I say peas, I really should be saying Please, but this is how Xander says it, much cuter I think. We've been working on manners lately, for example instead of throwing his milk at mommy and yelling "MALK!!!" (this is how he says milk) at the top of his lungs, I have started making him go pick up the cup and bring to to Mommy and say Please or "Peas" before I will get him more milk. The other night at dinner he actually handed Daddy his cup said "peas!" and then when Daddy brought it back he said "tank oo!" (thank you) I was SO proud!

Lastly, we took Xander to Explora (a local Children's museum) this past weekend. We went with another couple and the four of us had a great time just watching Xander have a blast. The best part for me would be when we arrived at the toddler section, there were little ones running around playing with all sorts of neat toys, blocks, balls and do you know what he did, walked up to the book shelf, picked out a book and sat down next to Daddy and handed it to him to read! haha I was pretty proud! Here's a couple great pictures from Explora:











Also a couple great pictures I took yesterday at the office, yes he still comes to the office with me everyday, this is him "working" yesterday at my desk, notice winnie the pooh on the computer, I guess he wanted to take notes haha!

Bedtime Fun!

A couple cute pictures I took the other night before bedtime, Xander loves pointing at this picture of pooh bear and friends and naming all the animals for us before bed. You'll also notice his "eXXe" I love the way he says it, sort of drawn out like that, so sweet!

18 months!

Xander turned 18 months this month and we headed to the doctor Monday for the dread shots and checkup. He's definitely gotten smarter, even the nurse remarked how smart he was when she entered the room with the shots and he immediately freaked at the sight of them, "he's pretty smart, he knows what's coming" she said. Oh my and he did not like it. I've gotten braver thankfully, and his screaming is down to about a minute after so it's definitely better. He's doing great, which makes for a mostly boring checkup, the doctor tells me he's wonderful. He's already weaned himself off the bottle and never took a real sippy cup so that wasn't an issue, and as far as his development he's right on track and can do it all, well everything on that 4 page sheet they give you. So she said he's great, not to worry so much about giving him things like sugar haha, and the no juice thing is good.

Words of the week: "Mouse", as in mickey mouse, he LOVES mickey mouse, he likes when I show him Mickey on his diapers before he puts them on. He'll point to him and say "mouse" in the cutest little voice, and the second word, "Kick", the word he uses for Kix Cereal, his new favorite snack. I got a box this week to switch things up, I think he's sick of O's (cheerios), and he loves em. He'll sit sometimes in the morning and watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse with his little bowl of cereal, just snacking away. It's so cute, I try to snap pics but then he gets up and gets annoyed so I try not to disturb.

Pictures! Xander hanging out in his old walker (collapsed) watching cartoons
Note: he got in here with the blankets and cup by himself, I found him this way watching cartoons the other morning